Seafood Recipes

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Seafood recipes include all animals of aquatic origins but, oddly, not sea vegetables such as seaweed. Humans have been eating seafood for as long as we have existed as a species. It can be argued that the more of this super food you eat, the healthier you are likely to be.

Health Benefits of Seafood Recipes

Compared to the meat of land animals, most seafood is lower in fat and as high or higher in protein. As such, it makes sense to substitute fish, portion for portion, for a red meat such as beef.

More importantly, many types of fish are high in omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to decrease the likelihood of cardiovascular disease. Societies with a high fish consumption have a low incidence of heart disease and omega-3 is the reason why. You can obtain omega-3 supplements, but why, when you can just eat fish two or three times a week and cut back on cholesterol and fat-laden beef at the same time?

Mercury in Seafood

All seafood recipes contain at least trace amounts of mercury and some fish, notably mature fish who have had a long time to absorb mercury in their diets, have higher than trace amounts.

Since mercury is a neurotoxin, it sounds like you ought to avoid fish altogether, doesn't it? But wait -- the adult body can tolerate certain levels of mercury and eliminates the mercury over time -- that is, it can't build up to a lethal dose unless you eat an enormous amount of high-mercury-content fish.

So what's the issue? Mercury content in fish becomes a major issue in fetal development, since levels of neurotoxins that might not affect an adult brain have a much smaller brain to work with. Environmental mercury is thought to be the causes of many childhood developmental problems. Children should also limit or avoid altogether the consumption of high-mercury-content foods.

Pregnant women or women of childbearing years who plan to become pregnant should keep track of their fish consumption. If you are a seafood-aholic and also want to become a mother, switch to low-mercury fish and shellfish in recipes at least a year before trying to conceive - it can take up to a year for the body to completely eliminate mercury. Read the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advisory What You Need to Know About Mercury in Fish and Shellfish for more information.